


Two-Way Street

by stephanericher



Series: 31 Days of Horoscopes [10]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 06:35:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9422717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: 1/21: A friend or romantic partner may not be communicating with you the way they should, Aquarius. Something is bothering your sweetie, and he or she doesn't want to discuss it. Even if you ask, the answers are likely to be evasive. Pushing won't be appreciated. Perhaps it's best to leave your friend alone to work it out. Your honey will tell you about it when the time is right.





	

**Author's Note:**

> so this 31-day challenge is based on the wonderful [31-Day Horoscope Challenge by @icandrawamoth](http://archiveofourown.org/series/621022). Simply: read your horoscope for the day from horoscope.com (Aquarius for me); use it as a writing prompt.

Tatsuya seems more on edge than usual. It’s a subtle change, small enough for Shuuzou to doubt it at first, think perhaps he’s just getting too impatient with the way Tatsuya’s hand curls away from his when they’re just centimeters apart or the stone walls he hits just when he’s sure they’re on the road to deep discussion. But it’s different from that, too. Tatsuya’s a little more wary around him, but he’s also a little more withdrawn, staring into space when there’s a place in the conversation he can pick up, picking at his nails instead of engaging. It’s as if he’d put up a new wall but dropped another in the process, but the fact that he’s showing Shuuzou this is worrying, especially because he doesn’t seem to want to. He’ll look up and readjust his façade every so often, but it always falls away again like a computer background dissolving to a flaky screensaver.  
  
It’s strange, though. Nothing’s changed; Shuuzou’s quite sure he hasn’t said anything and even more sure that if he had Tatsuya would be more upfront about it. Alex hasn’t said anything, and everything seems to be okay with his parents and with everyone else (everyone Shuuzou knows at least, but he’s not sure what percentage of the people in Tatsuya’s life that is).  
  
It’s not something he can bring up, but it’s not something he can let lie, either, and even if he never manages to approach these subjects with Tatsuya the right way Shuuzou’s not going to not try, and so he says, next time, next time, until it’s been too many of those.  
  
Tatsuya’s looping his thumb and forefinger through the ring around his neck. They barely fit even halfway down the nail; the ring is small enough to fit a child snugly. Maybe it’s not even a ring for one’s finger, just an oddly-shaped bead meant to evoke a ring, but what else would it be?  
  
“Tatsuya,” Shuuzou says, and Tatsuya jerks up; his hand falls down to grip his thigh and he looks almost guilty. “What’s up?”  
  
Tatsuya shrugs and looks away. “Just thinking.”  
  
He tucks a lock of hair behind his ear; it’s the only maybe-evasive tic he has (or at least the only one Shuuzou’s picked up on).  
  
“About what?”  
  
Tatsuya’s reply had been open enough; he’s not pushing too hard just sort of a gentle tap to the back.  
  
“You,” Tatsuya says.  
  
An outright lie as he leans over to kiss Shuuzou, firm and gentle and in a way that tells him not to push back again right now. Shuuzou can take a hint.  
  
He can’t get much further than this, not right away and not less immediately. A week passes, and then another, and Tatsuya is still pushing, building walls around the subject that reach higher and higher, trying to divert both of their attentions when he’s still so clearly caught up in it himself all the time, preoccupied with whatever the weight is that’s sinking down his mind. He’s jittery,, touchy; he initiates more contact with Shuuzou but pulls away faster than ever, doubly and triply doubting his own moves. Shuuzou bites back his questions more and more and reminds himself silently that this is all coming to a head, and most likely soon.  
  
He doesn’t have to wait more than another week.  
  
“Shuu,” Tatsuya says, “I need to talk to you.”  
  
His voice is sure and clear, more than it’s been in weeks. He takes Shuuzou’s hand and rubs his thumb over Shuuzou’s knuckle.  
  
“Okay,” says Shuuzou.  
  
He waits.  
  
“I’m moving to Akita.”  
  
The world stops around him. Tatsuya’s parents switched their citizenship; they don’t even work for international companies; there’s no way.  
  
“I applied to an international school there, for basketball. As soon as this school year ends I’m going.”  
  
Tatusya’s eyes are half-lowered; he’s playing with the ring around his neck again. Shuuzou’s mouth isn’t working properly right now but the rest of him is, so he pulls Tatsuya closer and into his arms. He feels Tatsuya take a sharp breath before he hears it and hugs him tighter, relaxing when he feels Tatsuya hug him back.  
  
“Applications were due a few weeks ago, and…I didn’t want to tell you if nothing ended up happening, if I didn’t get in.”  
  
“They’d be fools if they hadn’t taken you with the way you play,” Shuuzou says. “Congratulations, though.”  
  
Tatsuya hugs him tighter, the way he does when he’s trying not to cry. Shuuzou rubs his thumb across the small of Tatsuya’s back and kisses the side of his head, and then he waits. It’s a minute, maybe more, before either of them speaks again.  
  
“Thank you,” Tatsuya says.  
  
He doesn’t ask what about the two of them, but Shuuzou doesn’t either. He doesn’t say he’ll wait, even though he will and it’s on the tip of his tongue, because it’s Tatsuya, and bold declarations like that are equally likely to make him run as they are to make him stay. And it’s still far away, but right now he still has Tatsuya in his arms and, even when he lets go, in the same city.  
  
Tatsuya holds his hand all the way back home and bumps his shoulder against Shuuzou’s accidentally-on-purpose quite a few times. It’s a little like when they’d just started going out, and that’s probably what Tatsuya’s going for.  
  
“You’ll have to teach me some of the cool slang,” Tatsuya says.  
  
Shuuzou laughs (and for a fleeting second he thinks, too possessively, that he’d love to keep the Tatsuya who peppers his Japanese sentences with vernacular straight from the 1980s to himself, that he wants no one in Akita to know that part of him).  
  
“How will you know I’m not making it up, though?”  
  
“I’ll just have to trust you.”  
  
His voice is light; his hand grips Shuuzou’s tighter for a second and Shuuzou wants to tell him not to go, to stay here forever. But there’s a reason he’s going; Shuuzou’s going to have to trust Tatsuya too, and he trusts (blindly, with little more than intuition) that Tatsuya needs this, that maybe it’s something there that’s making him miserable here. Shuuzou squeezes his hand and smiles in a wordless reassurance that he hopes gets through.

**Author's Note:**

> this title could be used for like. all my nijihimu stories lmao.
> 
> your feedback is appreciated as always!


End file.
